The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-10-20

gates, and in hotel pariOrS, and cOnjugal /
perjuries are among the damnable re-
suits. When a woman, young or old,
gets her head thoroughly stuffed with tho
modern novel she is in appalling peril.
BIT some one will say: ''The heroes are
so a1riotly knavish, and the persons SO
untrue, and the turn of the
story SO exquisite, and all the characters
SO enrapturing, [ cannot quit them. My
brother, my sister, you can find styles OF
literature just as charming that will ele-
vate and purify, and ennoble, and Chris
tianize while they please. The devil
does not own all the honey. There is a
wealth Of good books coming forth from
our publishing houses that leaves no ex-
cuse for the choice of that which is de-
bauching to body, mind and soul. Go to
some intelligent men or women, and ask
for list of books that will be strength
ening to your mental and moral condi-
ton. Life is so short and your time for
Improvement 50 abbreviated that you can
not afford to fill up with husks, and Gin
derS, and debris. In the intersticeS of busl-
ness that young man is reading that which
will prepare him to be merchant prince,
and that young woman is filling her
mind with an intelligence that will yet
either make her the chief attraction
of a good mans home or give her
an independence of character that will
qualify her to build her own home and
maintain it in happiness that requires
no augmentation from any of our rougher
sex. That young man or young woman
can by the right literary and moral i'm
provement of the spare ten minutes here
or there in every day raise head and
shoulders in prosperity, and character,
and influence above the loungers who
read nothing or read that which be-
dwarfs. See all the forests of good
American literature dripping with honey.
Why pick up the hOneycombs that have
in them the fiery bees which will sting
you with an eternal poison while you
taste it? One book may for you or me
decide everything for this world or the
next. 1t was a turning point with me
when in Wynkoop's bookstore, Syracuse.
one day picked up a book called 'The
Beauties of Ruskin." 1t was only
book of extracts, but it was all pure
honey, and I was not satisfied until had
purchased all his works, at that time ex-
pensive beyond an easy capacity to own
them, and what a heaven l went through
in reading his 'Seven Lamps of Architec
ture'' and his ''Stones of Venice" it is
impossible for me to describe except by
saying that it gave me rapture for good
books, and an everlasting disgust for de-
crepit or immoral books that viii last me
while my immortal soul lasts. All
around the church and the world today
there are busy hives of intelligence occu-
pied by authors and authoresses from
whose pens drip distillation which is the
very nectar of heaven, and why will you
thrust your rod of inquisitiveness into the
deathful saccharipe of perdiction?
Stimulating liquids also come into the
category of temptations delicious but
deathful. You say: 81 cannot bear the
taste of Intoxicating liquor, and how any
man can like it is to me an amazement. ="
Well, then, It is no credit to you that you
do not take it. Do not brag about your
total abstinence, because it is not from
any principle tnat you reject alcoholism,
Dut for the same reason that you reject
certain styles Of food-you simply don't
like the taste of them. But multitudes
of people have natural fondness for all
kinds of intoxicants. They like it SO
much that it makes them smack their
| lips to look at it. They are dyspeptic
and they take it to aid digestion, or they
are annoyed by insomnia and they take
it to produce sleep, OF they are troubled
and they take it to make them oblivious,
or they feed good and they must cele-
brate their hilarity. They begin with
mint julep sucked through two straws on
the Long Branch piazza and end in the
ditch, taking from a jug liquid half
kerosene and half whisky. They not only
! like it, but it is an all consuming passion
| of body, mind and soul, and after while
! have it they will, though one wine glass
| of it should cost the temporal and eter-
| nal destruction of themselves and all their
/ families, and the whole human race.
They would say: II am sorry it is going
to cost me and my family and all the
worlds population SO very much, but
here it goes to my lips, and now lei
it roll over my parched tongue and
down my heated throat, the sweetest,
the most inspiring, the most rapturous
thing that ever thrilled mortal or imrnor-
tai" To cure the habit before it comes tC
its last stages, various plans were tried in
olden times. This plan was recon-.
mended in the books When a mar
wanted to reform he put shot or bullets
into the cup or glass of strong drink
one additional shot each day-that dis
placed SO much liquor, Bullet fter 0ul-
let added day by day, of course the iiq
uor became less and less until the bullets
would entirely fill up the glass and there
was no room for the liquid, and by thai
time it was said the inebriate would bt
cured. Whether any one ever was cureC
in that way l know not, but by long ex
pertinent it is found that the only way il
to stop short off, and when a man doe
that he needs God to help him. AnC
there have been more cases than you car
that he quit forever, and l could count {
score of them here today, some of then
pillars in the house of God.
One would suppose that men would
take warning from some Of the ominou
names given to the intoxicants and stanC
off from the devastating influence. YoI
have noticed, for instance, that some o
the restaurants are called "The Shades,
typical of the fact that it puts man
reputation in the shade and his morals il
the shade and his prosperity in the shad
and his wife and children in the shad
and his immortal destiny in the shade.
, Now, / find on some of the nquo
signs in all our cities the words ''Ol
Crow" nightly suggestive of carcas
, and the filthy raven that swoops dow
! upon it. ''Old Crowr' Men and We
t men without numbers slain of rum br
| unburied, and this evil is pecking at the
l glazed eyes and pecking at their bloate
: cheek and pscking at their destroye
g manhood and womanhood, thrustin
f beak and claw into the mortal remains
g what was once gloriously alive bl
' now morally dead. ''Old Grow!
But alas, how many take no war;
V ing. They make me think of Caes;
n on his way to assassination fearir
j nothing; though his statue in the hf
$ crashed into fragments at his feet, and
J, scroll containing the names OF the CO